Power of Positive Reinforcement

Keep showing people their negatives and they fail for sure. As a manager/leader, it is extremely important to focus on positive aspects of an individual and consistently try to develop/flourish those and overcoming negatives in that process.

Every individual needs to grow – but if the intent to grow is fuelled by positive reinforcement, growth process certainly becomes faster. On the other hand, if shortcomings are highlighted (even for fuelling the intent to grow/improve) – the pace of improvement certainly slows down.

The story below, from mgmtstories.com exactly highlights the same.

“In 1982, University of Wisconsin researchers who were conducting a study of the adult-learning process videotaped two bowling teams during several games. The members of each team then studied their efforts on video to improve their skills. But the two videos had been edited differently. One team received a video showing only its mistakes; the other team’s video, by contrast, showed only the good performances. After studying the videos, both teams improved their game, but the team that studied its successes improved its score twice as much as the one that studied its mistakes. Evidently, focusing on the errors can generate feelings of fatigue, blame, and resistance. Emphasizing what works well and discussing how to get more out of those strengths taps into creativity, passion, and the desire to succeed.”